Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place.

Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete ...and a basket case... a princess...and a criminal...

Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

This voiceover, read in the beginning and the end of The Breakfast Club completely sums up the point of the film for me. It wasn't about whether these characters talked to each other after that Saturday or were even nice to each other. It was the fact that these characters had this experience as individuals. The tagline of the film also sums it up perfectly "they only met once. but it changed their lives forever." They all got to hear the perspectives of other kids in the school that they would probably never talk to if they weren't forced together in one room, but also they got some deep stuff out. The scene where they're all sitting on the floor, talking to each other is filmed as close-up shots when they get into the serious conversations. There isn't a wide shot until there's a lighter conversation. I think this is because internally some of the things they say need to come out for them as characters. It's a character driven film rather than a friendship driven film like I feel a lot of people expect it to be. 

However, since watching it multiple times since the first time watching the film while I was still in high school (and especially watching it recently) I do think the ending is especially problematic. Bender constantly picks on Claire the whole time but yet she ends up sneaking into the closet to kiss him. Brian writes the paper because Claire asks him to. Allison gets a makeover from Claire to get the guy. This is the biggest problem I have with the film since Allison is my favorite character. Labeled as "crazy" throughout the film when I thought she was just a strange outsider who wanted attention because her parents are extremely neglectful (shown in the opening scene). And then she is basically turned into an upper-class princess like Claire just with a makeover. In "Postfeminist Cliques? Class, Postfeminism, and the Molly Ringwald-John Hughes Films", Bleach writes "But Allison’s individualism is coded as “crazy” in the world of the film; her acquisitiveness, run rampant, is kleptomania. And, as her makeover demonstrates, in the Reagan era, her differences are erased (and conveniently forgotten) by the workings of the upper class." I think it was obvious why there was so much ambivalence towards Claire from the others. She represented this upper-class Reagan era type girl talked about in the article. No matter how much they picked on her, in the end she still has the power. She still gets the nerd to write the paper, she transforms the middle-class girl into an upper-class girl like her to get the guy, and she kisses the criminal to make her parents mad. I think in the 80's there probably was this ambivalence towards the upper-class from the working class (and there still is somewhat) and the film also shows how much advantage the upper-class have over the lower classes.

On a lighter note,  I feel like this film has some of the best moments and most quotable scenes ever. Another reason that makes it so iconic. When the principle does the devil horns or the "eat my shorts" scene.... and the dancing and teenage angst...ah it's so great. I don't know how the article can question why it's still popular after all these years.